Study ranks "10 worst" kids' cereals for sugar

December 11, 2011 / 8:42 PM
/ CBS News

A new study shows many breakfast cereals pack so much sugar, they're more like desserts.

For the report, the Environmental Working Group checked the content of 84 popular offerings, and says, "Kellogg's Honey Smacks, at nearly 56 percent sugar by weight, leads the list of the 10 worst children's cereals."

One cup of Kellogg's Honey Smacks has more sugar than a Hostess Twinkie, and a cup of 44 other children's cereals has more sugar than three Chips Ahoy! Cookies, according to the EWG.

It adds that only a quarter of the cereals meets voluntary proposed guidelines of the federal Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children which, says the EWG, recommend no more than 26 percent added sugar by weight." And the EWG is pushing for even an even lower lid.

It quotes health expert Dr. Andrew Weil as saying, "The fact that a children's breakfast cereal is 56 percent sugar by weight - and many others are not far behind - should cause national outrage."

The EWG also quotes noted NYU nutrition professor Marion Nestle as saying, "Cereal companies have spent fortunes on convincing parents that a kid's breakfast means cereal, and that sugary cereals are fun, benign, and all kids will eat. The cereals on the EWG highest-sugar list are among the most profitable for their makers, who back up their investment with advertising budgets of $20 million a year or more. No public health agency has anywhere near the education budget equivalent to that spent on a single cereal. Kids should not be eating sugar for breakfast. They should be eating real food."

To see the ten cereals the EWG pegs as the most sugar-laden, go to Page 2.

The EWG's "10 Worst Children's Cereals," based on percent sugar by weight: